Well, the Panasonic UB-820 is the only one with Tone-mapping for HDR content, so for disc playback, there's probably nothing better out there.

But it doesn't do well with media files, and while Amazon HDR seems to stream well, there are issues with Netflix HDR for most people it seems. No Vudu app at all if that's important to you.

People also complain about the cheap remote for this otherwise good player, MSRP $499.99 or so.

I'm not aware of any player that will do proper Tone-mapping for HDR content while otherwise being a top notch media player or streamer. So you might need another device to handle those latter 2 functions if they're important to you.

I got the Panasonic UB424 same as 820 just without DV, and i like the tonemapping, but im not a fan of the videoprocessor limitation and Panasonics very poor chroma performance, kind of the worse i seen on any UHD player, streaming is so so, it really lags behing the Xbox in that regard, Xbox however play about 0 files, the Panasonic plays a few, but mostly its a mess of movie and sound support, so the OPPO 203 is the reference for file support, its just no streaming and the tonemapping is broke/ defective in my optics. And the Xbox have no adjustable tonemapping so it is what it is.

Not sure who got the worse SD upscaling, might be the OPPO 203 closely followed by Panasonic, the old OPPO 103D do better SD upscaling than any of them.

And regarding the new Panasonic remote.. Ohh yeah thats a piece of Sh.... I dont know how many times i pressed the home button by mistake, its to short and really dont work for 1 hand controle, so im using the UB900 remote.

I got the Panasonic UB424 same as 820 just without DV, and i like the tonemapping, but im not a fan of the videoprocessor limitation and Panasonics very poor chroma performance, kind of the worse i seen on any UHD player, streaming is so so, it really lags behing the Xbox in that regard, Xbox however play about 0 files, the Panasonic plays a few, but mostly its a mess of movie and sound support, so the OPPO 203 is the reference for file support, its just no streaming and the tonemapping is broke/ defective in my optics. And the Xbox have no adjustable tonemapping so it is what it is.

Not sure who got the worse SD upscaling, might be the OPPO 203 closely followed by Panasonic, the old OPPO 103D do better SD upscaling than any of them.

And regarding the new Panasonic remote.. Ohh yeah thats a piece of Sh.... I dont know how many times i pressed the home button by mistake, its to short and really dont work for 1 hand controle, so im using the UB900 remote.

That is very surprising to hear as I have read in multiple reviews that their chroma processing is what sets them apart from the others. I have an Oppo 203D, Pannasonic UB900 and a UB820 and the Panasonics are both better than the oppo, IMO, for playing HDR and the UB820 takes it to another level if you own a projector w/ it's tone mapping capabilities.

That is very surprising to hear as I have read in multiple reviews that their chroma processing is what sets them apart from the others. I have an Oppo 203D, Pannasonic UB900 and a UB820 and the Panasonics are both better than the oppo, IMO, for playing HDR and the UB820 takes it to another level if you own a projector w/ it's tone mapping capabilities.

I agree about the tonemapping, but the chroma is a scam, the Panasonic have some serious chroma bandwidth issues wich they then boosted/ enhanced, wich adds a lot of distortion/ ringing. That makes for a more punchy image on level with adding some detail enhancement, and thats what most people like.If you want to clean up the distortion and do a balance between chroma bandwidth and the ringing, try set chroma sharpness to -4It goes for all Panasonic UHD players

Why would I buy a gaming console if I don't game at all ? That's a non starter for me.

Those reviews are not realy usefull if your a purist, and the hole advertising about superior chroma handling by Panasonic is a scam, and its to bad none of the reviewers are competent enought to see true that.

The Xbox dont have adjustable tone mapping, so in that case its not a winner, but as i seen it it surely slaps around the Panasonic players evaluated on chroma performance upscaling and streaming quality, so while you might not need a gaming console, think of it as a heavy duty processor whos ideling true the task of processing a disc.

I had the Pioneer LX500 over for a weekend, and truly hope they get the firmware ironed out, it has the potential to be something, even it dont have the multitap chroma upsampling, it looks much like the oppo in that regard, no Panasonic distortion, however the Xbox seems to do both multitap chroma upsampling without bandwidth loss or distortion.

These things are visible on screen, but if you dont have a capable display it wont matter much, and in some cases you might like the addet distortion/ enhancement/ backdoor processing Panasonic features.

Question is if you do a subjective or a objective evaluation, do you want it done right, or tailored for some peoples preferences. Most players offers enhancement, the issue with the Panasonic players seems to be the chroma bandwidth limitation they felt they had to compensate by boosting it artificially.

I find if your a image purist and like a more natural presentation ull prefer the -4 chroma sharpness setting on all Panasonic UHD players, i also got this confirmad by Panasonic, and hope they might see if it can be adressed by firmware, but they explained its most likely a processor limitation.